BotCon guests and event details (not toy reveals)

[griffin]

As estimated in the previous location/dates news topic, March looks to be the month for promoting the Convention, releasing details and the Online Brochure... with less than 4 months before the event.

I am pleasantly surprised that they have actually promoted an element of the convention online before the toys this year (yes, they showed off one toy in last month's Magazine), and it feels... more fan-friendly for not giving us the usual first-impression of mere revenue raising.
Toy reveals will be in a different topic, because most people interested in the toy reveals are not too interested in what is at the Convention, and toy updates would be buried in this topic.

The first convention details are three Gen1 guests. (yay )
A surprise, considering the bulk of living major Gen1 VAs are at a Texas convention during this weekend.
- Susan Blu (Gen1 Arcee & Marissa Faireborn, BW Transmutate) - previously at BotCon 98
- Michael McConnahie (Gen1 Tracks & Cosmos, RiD Hot Shot & Ironhide) - previously at BotCon 02, 04, 09, 11
- Hal Rayle (Gen1 Pipes, Shrapnel, Snarl) - first BotCon
(details from here)


For those of us who are still struggling to work out their travel itinerary, due to not yet knowing how many days you will need at the convention, and what pre-convention events are on offer.... lets hope that they release the Brochure and pre-registration soon.

[UltraMarginal]

I've got to admit that I was looking forward to another toy reveal but the news of these three attending is pretty interesting stuff. especially Susan Blu being the voice of some very iconic characters. Isn't she also a voice director ? I was under the impression that she worked on Transformers Prime?

[griffin]

A fourth guest has been announced - Jack Angel.... the voice of Astrotrain, Ramjet, Omega Supreme, Smokescreen, Breakdown and post-Movie Ultra Magnus.

This will be his first BotCon, and like many of the original series voice actors, he's getting on in his years, so it will be good to finally get him as a guest.... after a late cancellation for BotCon 2011 due to health reasons.

[UltraMarginal]

Botcon also tweeted that they'd be announcing Guests every Thursday which is good.
sounds like they have taken on someones advice cough Griffin cough.

Hopefully this means a guest or two on Thursday and a figure on Friday so maybe 4 -5 weeks before they release the brochure and another week or two after that when they open registration.

I'd suggest Jack angel is pretty healthy, he only recently did Pappa Smurf so he's working pretty steadily.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

sounds like they have taken on someones advice cough Griffin cough.

Ha ha ha. I thought the same thing.

Suan blu is a regular Voice diirector on lots of Kids Tv shows. I've seen her name on many many shows.

shame the club still doesn't understand the amount of effort some people have to go through to organise a trip over there.

[griffin]

Another Gen1 VA guest - Samantha Newark, who voiced Ariel, but not Elita-1 (who she became, after events in War Dawn).
Looks like she did some other minor female voice parts in the TFs cartoon, but her total contribution was rather minor compared to the other various Voice Actors from Gen1.
I'll be surprised if she remembers anything at all... or if she will talk more about being the role of Jem in that cartoon instead.

I like that they are looking for new Gen1 Voice Actors (especially since most of the big names are going to be in Texas that weekend), but this was one that even I didn't list as a potential VA guest, even on the "minor roles" listing.

[UltraMarginal]

today another 2 guests have been revealed on the Botcon Website

Derrick J. Wyatt and Marty Isenberg!

This is cool, DJW was at botcon 2011 and is a cool guy, Marty Isenberg is known for writing some of the better animated episodes. I would like to hear what he has to say about TF Prime.

[griffin]

David Kaye is this week's announced guest.
For those unfamiliar, he is best known for voicing Beast Wars Megatron, but also Animated Optimus and Armada/Energon/Cybertron Megatron, as well as a small role on TFPrime (as Hardshell).

This is one guest that helps FunPub get a "30 years of (Voice Actor) guests", if they were aiming to have at least one "30th Anniversary" element to the convention this year.

Let's see...
1984-1995 (Gen1/Gen2 cartoons) - Susan Blu, Michael McConnahie, Hal Rayle, Jack Angel, Samantha Newark
1996-2000 (BW/BMac) - David Kaye, Susan Blu (voice and director)
2001-2002 (RiD) - Michael McConnahie
2003-2006 (Unicron Trilogy) - David Kaye
2007-2010 (Animated) - David Kaye (plus Derrick J. Wyatt & Marty Isenberg)
2011-2013 (TFPrime) - David Kaye

EDIT (After seeing that David Kaye did a role on TFPrime)

I will be very impressed if they are intentionally aiming to get a full 30-year representation of Voice Actors (or guests).

[griffin]

It would appear that those are all the Voice Actor Guests, as FunPub are now starting their Comic and artist guests.... which has been their way of padding out the guest roster in the last couple years.

First one is IDW writer James Roberts, and since we are back in California, expect most of IDW's writers, artists and editors to be at BotCon... but a fan convention is where you'd want to meet them, so it is a good idea to have as many as they can get.
The question will be if they have an IDW tour again this year, being three hours from Pasadena.

[griffin]

The cast of Rescue Bots is returning this year... which was probably the most entertaining panel last year, with the VAs playing off each other.
Not surprising, since the show is in LA and many of them probably live there to do their recording work... and since they were so entertaining (and I think Rescue Bots should be checked out by older fans), I'm not complaining about the recycling of them two years in a row.

The only problem is that they were treated as an ensemble, instead of as individual VA guests for the convention. So, they weren't part of the Golden Ticket reception, and weren't promoted individually like the other VA guests.